Investigators believe that police officer Sergey Astafurov and Vladimir Spiridonov not only illegally initiated a criminal case against the co-owner of Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant and his lawyer, but incited victims to crime.

Details of the high-profile case of exceeding official powers by GUEBiPK officer were disclosed.
Kommersant learned that security forces detained along with Lt. Col. of the Department M (fight against crime in the field of metallurgy) of the MIA GUEBiPK Sergey Astafurov his accomplice – FSUE Promresurs auditor Vladimir Spiridonov. The detention took place on Tuesday, 14 February. Next day, Astafurov was arrested for two months, and his accomplice is still awaiting a preventive measure.

According to the investigation, Spiridonov and Astafurov initiated a criminal case under Article Commercial Bribery (Art. 204 of the Criminal Code) in respect of co-owner and board member of OJSC Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) Andrey Komarov and lawyer Alexander Shibanov. In 2013, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Promresurs (included in the Minpromtorg structure) held the audit of compliance with the legislation on mobilization preparation at ChTPZ. FSUE auditors found that the plant's management simply wrote off funds allocated by the state to the mobilization capacities. In particular, they talked about the project Vysota (Height) 239 - workshop production of pipes of large diameter, built in 2010. Employees of Promresurs found that it was unlawfully ranked as mobilization's property to receive 1.8 billion rubles from the budget. After uncovering the fraud scheme the ChTPZ management, according to investigators, offered $300 thousand to general director of Promresurs Vladimir Spiridonov for the correction of the inspection report. However, the auditor reported it to GUEBiPK. First, during the transfer of money representative of FSUE Shibanov was detained, and then Andrey Komarov. However, the case, initiated in 2014, was terminated. It was closed on February 8, 2016 by investigator for priority cases of the MID ICR Mikhail Tumanov. It follows from judgement that in the course of further investigation it was found that "the transfer of money to Komarov with the complicity of Shibanov was carried out as a result of inflammatory action of Spiridonov and law enforcement officials." In addition, it was found that the Spiridonov's statement about the crime was registered on February 27, 2014, while the range of operational-search activities Colonel Astafurov carried out on February, 11. The investigation also believes that Astafurov exceeded official powers during the operational experiment during recording conversations between the auditor and Shibanov, Komarov, because "at the time he combined the procedural powers of the operational personnel and the investigator." Now, the co-owner of the Chelyabinsk plant and the lawyer are complainants.